Friday, 22 January 2016

Nicole Doironwith her take on our inspiration artwork this month. This is such a lovely page - so soft and gentle but with a real seaside feel.

The
overall Summer theme of "Bondi Scene" was my main inspiration so I picked a
picture of my boyfriend walking by the seashore in our hometown as the main
focus of my layout. The first
design element you notice when looking at this artwork is the artist's unique
style of using thick paint strokes. I tried to reproduce this technique on my
background by adding lots of white gesso with a spatula mixed with mist and
acrylic paint to create an effect of foamy blue seawater at the top and sandy
beach at the bottom. I then added many sea-inspired embellishments and dabbed
everything with a bit of white paint, as is my style.

I'm Nicole from Canada's beautiful East coast! I share my home with
my fiance
Yvesand our fur baby Sugar the cat. I
love reading, music (yes! I do sing in the shower
sometimes!), social game nights with friends, road trips and spending as much time
in my scrap room as I can! I have a shabby chic romantic style and I love
to dabble with mixed media techniques. I started scrapbooking in 2004,
starting blogging about it in 2011 and
it has been a marvelous adventure ever since! Having always
been interested in art (it was my major during my first year at University), I
am thrilled to be a Guest Designer this month at ARTastic, concept of which I
love! Thank you Jane for this opportunity!

To see more of my creations, you can
visit my blog, Scrap-Utopia, at http://scrap-utopia.blogspot.comSome more of Nicole's gorgeous work ...

Thank you for joining us this month Nicole. It has been wonderful having you join in with us.

Remember ....

You still have time until the end of the month to upload your own take on this challenge. All details are on the blog sidebar. We'd love to see what you can do with our inspiration this month.

Friday, 15 January 2016

Welcome to our mid month reveal. We are working with this wonderful painting by Isabelle May Tweddle called Bondi Scene.

CRITERIA is a Summer theme

Please remember a Summer theme is YOUR Summer theme, it doesn't have to be beach related. It can be anything Summer means to you - playing in the pool, watching Summer sport, walking in the park, ice creams, cold drinks, sunscreen and hats ....

KAREN

I took my inspiration from the beach theme of the painting. I used lots of different textures that would be found on a beach.

MARY

This is summer where I live ..... hot, dry, hay and lucerne bales and cherry picking. I used the colours in the art work in my layout.

ANNA

Inspiration from the beach theme and the colors. Craft CS for a sand feeling and some gold paint to mimic the sunshine. And of course the photo is of my feet on the beach on our trip to California.

TONE

Inspiration from bathing, the blue of the water, the summer generally :)

The title means "A real paradise".

KAT

I've used a photo taken at Bondi Beach (the same beach as the painting) 10 years ago. I've used papers from a summer-themed collection (incorporating the colours in the painting) and added glitter embossing powder to my wood veneer title to give it a sandy texture.

ANGELIKA

My inspiration was the colours- blue on top and sand/red on bottom, as well as the beach theme making me want to scrap a photo of my favourite place to be.JANE

Inspired by the red, blue, yellow and sand colours and the beach theme - I am so lucky to live so close to the ocean. I should never take that for granted.

Now it is your turn, we'd love to see your own interpretation ...

Remember we happily accept all forms of paper crafting for your entry including digital and encourage international submissions. All we ask is that you create something new for our challenge and only combine your entry with a sketch challenge. We offer two prizes determined by team vote and one other prize selected purely by random draw - so anyone can be a winner regardless of style or level of experience. You have until 11.55pm on the last day of the month to submit your entry.

Please pop back on the 22nd when we introduce you to the very first Guest Designer of 2016, Nicole Doiron.

Friday, 8 January 2016

I will be announcing our December winners shortly but first I would like to introduce you to our very first edition of Tips, Tricks and Techniques for 2016.Christmas Boxes made with Christmas Cards

or

Present Boxes made with Birthday Cardsby Jane Howden

We all have them - old cards kept from last Christmas (and the Christmas before that and the one before that and .... well you get the idea) or we have a stockpile of Birthday cards from too many years to acknowledge! Sometimes we figure we will cut them up to make other cards or hand over to the kids to use for craft activities but if you are anything like me ... well they sit there for years!

So grab one out ... I have used a Christmas card for demonstration purposes but this works just as well with any type of card.

Cut the card apart (back from front) and draw diagonal lines from corner to corner on the inside of the card.

Now fold the top edge of the card into the center so it touches the X. Crease the fold with a a creasing tool or ruler. Do this for the bottom and then both sides.

Cut each corner from the edge of the card along the crease until it intersects with the horizontal fold.

Fold the two wing pieces in and secure with tape. Then fold the longer piece over them and secure. I used tape runner.

Now repeat this process with the back of the Christmas card taking care when you fold in the sides to go slightly past the centre X (2mm) when you fold so the bottom becomes a little smaller and you can fit the top of the box over it.

Place some tissue into the base of the box (or alternatively you could cut a square of patterned paper and line the bottom) and use it for small items such as jewellery, ornaments, toiletries, sweets and chocolates. Decorate with ribbon, lace, twine (whatever you like) and add a gift card and hey presto one little gift box.

**Remember the bigger the card you use, the larger the box when completed and vice versa.

and now onto our December winners .....Thank you everyone for playing along with us last month especially when it is such a busy time of year for most of us - we had some really wonderful entries.

We were working from this beautiful painting called Merry Christmas by Alice Ju, and the Criteria was the use of GOLD.

Could the winners please contact me on jjjustjane@bigpond.com with their postal details. You have until the announcement of the winners for next month to do so.Don't forget to grab our winners badge from the sidebar. Could I just remind everyone that while we welcome you combining with other challenges our limit is two - so ours plus two others only and this includes items you may have done as part of a DT.

OurCreative Team highlightfrom last month is Jo. She will receive a little surprise something from me.

Don't forget to enter this month's ARTastic challenge. All the details are in the left sidebar. Remember you have until the end of the month to submit your entry.

Please pop back on the 15th when we will have more delightful team inspiration to show you.

Monday, 4 January 2016

A huge welcome to you and to 2016. We hope you had a lovely Christmas and are enjoying both the school holidays here in Australia and this beautiful Summer season.

We have lots of wonderful things in store for you during 2016 here on ARTastic. We have a NEW Creative Team and you are going to love what they have in store for all of you as inspiration. We have some absolutely delightful Australian artworks to showcase and some wonderful prizes to give away - this year our main prize each month will be a fantastic Kasiercraft product pack which may be filled with stamps, bling, stencils, paper pads, alphabets, chipboard and all manner of lovely things. Our runner up will receive an equally lovely pack from Mystical Scrapbooks which will include a set of exclusive flair (you cannot get these anywhere else !). And of course each month we have a random draw where anyone can be a winner of a special prize put together by one of our creative team. And of course we will have more amazing tutorials and extra special guests popping by the blog each month. 2016 is going to be awesome!!

Our first inspiration for 2016 is this wonderful painting by Isabelle May Tweddle called Bondi Scene.

CRITERIA is Summer theme

Please remember a Summer theme is YOUR Summer theme, it doesn't have to be beach related. It can be anything Summer means to you - playing in the pool, watching Summer sport, walking in the park, ice creams, cold drinks, sunscreen and hats ....

Born in Deniliquin in 1877, Tweddle studied at the Melbourne National Gallery School under Bernard Hall and Fred McCubbin. A portrait, landscape and still life painter, she was a leader of the modern art movement in Melbourne. She was a member of the Contemporary Art Society, Twenty Melbourne Painters and the Melbourne Society of Women Painters. Tweddle died in Melbourne in 1945.And now some inspiration from the first group of our team ...

ELAINE

I am blessed to be living in a coastal town where there are bays a walk down the
road, then surf beaches and places for rock exploring 20mins down the road, so we are always out come
summer ☺︎. For my inspiration I have used the colours from the sand and the sky for my
base colours and followed with the beach theme, although my 2 girls are busy rock climbing instead of swimming ☺︎.
My background is made from water painting on an acrylic sheet, then rubbing it onto my page. I
textured painted triangles triangles along with drawing some in with pen.

HELENE

When I sawthis challengeI waseager todoa layoutin blue, whiteand sandcolor. I loved
todoa summerlayoutnow when it iswinterand coldhere
inSweden. It almost felt like
summer.SUE

Inspiration is from the beach theme and the colours. I have used a TH stencil and glitter swirls to mimic the waves.LIZZY

I took inspiration from the sand/sea combo and also the texture that is used in the painting technique.AN'JENIC

Inspired by the beach theme.

TRACEY

I took my inspiration from the brush strokes and the theme of the painting. A very simple design for this one.

Please upload the DIRECT link to your actual entry with the link tool on the LEFT by 11.55pm on January 31st, 2016. We'd love to see yournewpaper, digital, mixed media or off the page entries. Why not try doing a pocket page spread? Please no back-dated submissions.

Please note:- You may combine our challenge with a sketch challenge only - no other combining will be accepted. Please include our inspirational picture and challenge details on your blog post as well as provide a link back to us at ARTastic ... and don't forget to tell us how you were inspired by our challenge. You may enter more than once in any month as long as each submission is with a different creation. International entries are very welcome.

Please call past on the 8th for our announcement of the December winners and our first ARTastic 3T's - Tips, Tricks and Techniques for 2016.

February random draw prize

2nd random draw prize if more than 8 entries

January inspiration is by Chris Vella called Joy.

JANUARY entries ...

January Prize

JAN second prize - if more than 8 entries

Donated by Sharon Bishop

NO WORD VERIFICATION please

Our Creative Team love to leave comments on each and every entry, so please make it easier for them to do so and remove WORD VERIFICATION for your comments. If you choose to use specialist galleries please be aware we may not be able to leave comments for you.

ARTastic is a challenge blog with a difference. We find inspiration in works of art.THE RULES - You don't need to be arty to play along with us - we accept traditional paper, digital, mixed media and off the page creations at any level. International entries are welcome. You may combine with 3 other challenges. Please include our inspirational artwork and a link back to ARTastic on your entry and tell us how you were inspired by our artwork.